DAVID STEELE ON THE NBA -- A Postseason of Cliff-Hangers

David Steele

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, April 28, 1998

RELIABLE SOURCES insist that the NBA playoffs have begun, and that they've been full of suspense, surprise and intrigue so far. But who knows for sure? Teams keep drawing attention away from the court and into issues regarding the offseason and next season, and concerning who will be coaching where and why.

Three NBA title front-runners -- the Bulls, Sonics and Lakers -- began the playoffs with insecure

coaching futures. Chicago's Phil Jackson is almost a dead- solid lock to be elsewhere, and his name has been linked with the Sonics and Lakers. In fact, in a diary-style article in last week's ESPN Magazine, he linked himself to the Lakers, and went as far as to speculate on how Shaquille O'Neal would fit into a triangle offense. ("It's a center-in offense. And here with the Bulls, we never really had that center," he opines. "Who's the perfect center for the triangle? Shaq. SHAQ!")

That can't make current Lakers coach Del Harris rest easily, since he remains in limbo despite the fact that the team's win total has increased in each of his four years there. And his future is even cloudier with the reported retirement this summer of vice president Jerry West, who not only is Harris' most ardent supporter but who could influence O'Neal's and Kobe Bryant's status if he leaves. (Last week's column incorrectly reported that O'Neal can walk after 1999-2000. It's after next season.) Bryant's agent, Arn Tellem, said that West's retirement "makes the Lakers extremely vulnerable."

George Karl's contract in Seattle expires this season, and owner Barry Ackersley has given no sign that he wants to pay Karl a salary competitive with the best in the league -- even though Karl took the Sonics to the '96 Finals and has won 55 or more games for six straight years. Karl's name has also been connected to the Lakers. It remains to be seen whether Gary Payton's public endorsement of Karl ("I want Coach to stay, and I'm comfortable with what the organization is going to do with him," he said) will get the desired result. Obviously, it hasn't worked with Michael Jordan and Jackson.

At the other end of the food chain, Jackson's name appears at the top of a speculated list of replacements for Bill Fitch with the Clippers. Also, a report in the Los Angeles Times said that Clippers owner Donald Sterling was considering offering West 20 percent of the team to take over basketball operations. In Denver, where new general manager Dan Issel fired Bill Hanzlik the day after the season ended, Jackson and Karl are expected to be candidates 1 and 1-A.

Still, the coaching merry-go- round isn't spinning nearly as fast as it did last year. Today is the first anniversary of the firing of Rick Adelman by the Warriors, one of eight coaching changes last offseason.

POSTSEASON PONDERINGS: In his 16 years of coaching teams in the playoffs, Pat Riley developed a handful of easily memorable maxims. Such as, "A playoff series doesn't really start until the home team loses," and, "All we (or they) did was hold serve" -- both usually inserted after a team wins twice at home to open a series.

The Bulls, Pacers and Lakers, among the elite, have held serve. Two notable Finals contenders, the Jazz and Sonics, failed to do so, and now have a real series on their hands. Only three times since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1984 has an eventual NBA champion failed to sweep its first-round best- of-five series: the '84 Celtics and '94 and '95 Rockets. In other words, the true champions generally take care of business when they're supposed to and save their energy for later.

Meanwhile, the Lakers continue to justify the "immature" label they constantly try to refute. The distinguishing characteristic of their series against Portland is the verbal slap fight between Eddie Jones, who should know better, and Isaiah Rider.

Rider led his teammates in some Ali-style posturing, talking about how they would "shock the world" and how he personally would shut down Jones. After the Lakers won Game 1 Friday -- the first of the 11 they need just to get to the Finals -- Jones let himself get sucked into the trashfest and responded, "They said this and they said that all week, but we just went out there and won the game."

Note to Eddie and Co.: You don't see Michael and Scottie slinging this stuff around after going up 1-0 in the first round. You don't see it much after they hug the trophy, either.

Oh, and one other Riley gem he saves for the playoffs, this concerning his playing rotation: "Play eight, use seven, get to six, trust five."

OFF THE GLASS: Tim Duncan won the Rookie of the Year by a 113-3 vote, and the big question is, why was it so close? . . . Next award to be handed out is Most Improved Player on Thursday. The Warriors' Donyell Marshall is among the contenders. . . . Speaking of improvement, Jim Cleamons was fired in Dallas back in December when the Mavs were 4-12 (.250). Under Don Nelson, they went 16-50 (.242). . . . Nelson, like so many coaches before him, has reached his limit with Shawn Bradley: "It's time for him to do it or not. If he doesn't, I made a mistake and we'll move on. We don't have to have to have a 7- foot-6 center to be successful." Bradley was the key to Nelson's nine-player trade with New Jersey in February 1997 -- the one that shipped out Jim Jackson and Eric Montross, two players the Nets later sent to the 76ers in the trade that garnered Keith Van Horn.

TECHNICAL FOUL

CHARLES BARKLEY

Barkley's buffoonery goes beyond allowing himself to be taunted into an obscene gesture by the fans in Salt Lake City's Delta Center during Game 1 of the Rockets-Jazz series (for which he was fined $10,000). It goes beyond his brutish knockdown of John Stockton in Game 2, his sixth and final foul in a losing cause, after which he was immediately escorted to the locker room to avoid more conflicts with fans.

It goes back to his comments before Game 1, about Stockton's habit of setting backpicks that have been described as "cheap" and "dirty," which constantly draw retaliation from opposing players caught off guard.

"When you play against Stockton, you know he's going to hit you. That's the way he plays," Barkley lectured. "You can't hit him back (after Stockton's first hit) because the foul is

always going to be on you."

It's a testament to Barkley's leadership ability that he then went out and showed his teammates exactly what he meant. A picture -- of a guard flat on his back, or of a raised finger -- is worth a thousand words. Or $10,000.